BEERG Newsletter - Brexit: UK citizens do not hold onto EU citizenship

The European Court of Justice has been advised that British nationals living on the continent do not keep the advantages of EU citizenship now the UK has left, and Brexit has been legally completed. Anthony Collins, an Irish advocate general at the court, said in an opinion published on last week that British nationals “who enjoyed the benefits of union citizenship do not retain those advantages following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU”. The CJEU is expected to issue a final ruling on the case in June, which was brought on behalf of a retired civil servant, Alice Bouilliez, who has lived in south-west France for 37 years. It usually follows its advocates’ advice.

Bouilliez had based her case on the loss of her voting rights in local and European elections, arguing that EU citizenship was a fundamental status that should not be withdrawn without consent when there were serious consequences for people’s rights.

Under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the estimated 1.3 million UK citizens legally resident in one of the EU’s 27 states at the end of the transition period are eligible for permanent residence, protecting their most basic rights. But the withdrawal agreement did not secure several rights that British nationals enjoyed as EU citizens, including the right to vote and stand in local and European elections and the right to live and work elsewhere in the EU outside their country of residence.

Collins argued in his opinion that EU citizenship was additional to, and did not replace, nationality conferred by member states, that British nationals ceased to be EU citizens after Brexit, and that the loss of citizenship rights was “one of the consequences of the sovereign decision of the UK to withdraw from the EU”.

For an analysis of the Opinion see here from Professor Steve Peers.

Download BEERG Newsletter Issue #8 2022 as a PDF